If a herd goes from 200 to 100 as a result of your darting program, no wild horses were removed from the range?
Let’s look at this mathematically.
Final population = Initial population – Horses removed
100 = 200 – x
If you’re an advocate, x = 0.
If the herd was growing at a rate of 15% per year, the population would reach 800 in ten years, the time you needed to cut it to 100, which means you actually got rid of 700.
The land may be able to support many more wild horses but those resources have been assigned to privately owned livestock.
The ranchers appreciate your hard—but misguided—work very much.
Western Horse Watchers Association 